Chapter Fifteen

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Ruby watched as Owen hit the Unknown Number in his recent calls to redial the number. Since he had his phone on speaker, she heard the response.

Or rather the lack of one.

The call didn't ring, didn't go to voicemail either. There was just nothing, an indication to her that the phone had likely been a burner and it had been disconnected.

Cursing and with his movements becoming more frantic, he tried two more times to make the call, and he got the same results. When he started another attempt, Ruby took hold of his hand.

His gaze fired to hers, the emotion in his eyes. And the hurt. His niece had basically just blocked him, and they didn't know why.

"Shit," he muttered.

Ruby gave his hand a gentle squeeze and then went with a hug because she thought they could both use it.

"That was Brynn's voice, right?" Owen pressed, sounding more unnerved than she'd ever heard him. "Or do you think it was faked?"

She was asking herself the same thing. "It did sound like her," Ruby admitted. "But as you know, these things can be cobbled together from earlier recordings or even done with AI."

However, that left Ruby with yet another question—why would someone have done that? Like the mask, was it part of the plan to make Brynn look guilty when she might not even be alive? If so, it was a cruel joke, and it was clearly taking its toll on Owen. On her, too.

"Yes," Owen said, his voice a hoarse whisper now. "It could have been a recording." He stopped, eased back from her and met her eye to eye. "But I don't believe it was. I believe it was actually Brynn."

Ruby wanted to point out that could be wishful thinking, but she had the same gut feeling. If the gut feeling was true, then Brynn was alive.

That also meant she could be the one killing people.

Her gaze locked with Owen's, and she could see he was thinking the same thing. And if Brynn was a killer, then she would have to be arrested. That crushed Ruby's heart. She had failed miserably to protect Olivia's daughter.

The ringing of Owen's phone shattered the silence, and the relief washed over him as he went to answer it. But then, he muttered some profanity.

"Not Unknown Number," he relayed to her. "It's Marlie."

Ruby sighed, and while the timing for the call wasn't good, Owen took it right away. With Marlie being a prime suspect, they needed to hear what the woman had to say.

"Striker," he answered. "You're on speaker, Marlie, and Ruby is listening. What do you want?" And there wasn't a shred of politeness in that.

"Good," Marlie was quick to reply. "Because Ruby will want to hear this. I just got a call from an Unknown Number. I answered it because I thought…well, it doesn't matter what I thought…". Her words trailed off.

Marlie had probably hoped it was Trent, and there was disappointment in her voice so Ruby was guessing it hadn't been him.

"It was Brynn," Marlie added a moment later. "She said, I'm alive and then hung up. I told you all along she wasn't dead, that she'd faked her death to try to get back at Trent."

"The call could have been some kind of recording," Owen pointed out.

Marlie's silence conveyed that she hadn't considered that. "Well, it sounded like Brynn. And it was probably her. I think it was a threat to let me know she was coming after me the way she did Howie, that cop, and Carlton."

Maybe it was. And perhaps that was the reason Brynn had also phoned Owen. If so, then Ruby expected she'd be getting such a call soon.

But that still didn't mean it was actually from Brynn.

The killer could be using the calls to cover his tracks and aim attention, and guilt, on Brynn.

"I bought a gun," Marlie went on a moment later. "If she comes after me, I'm going to shoot her. I'll kill her," she spat out.

Ruby couldn't blame Marlie for wanting to defend herself, but neither Howie nor Detective McKinney had been successful in doing that. Carlton either. Yes, he was alive, but he'd still been attacked.

"Marlie, tell me about Trent and Alice," Owen threw out there.

That brought on another round of silence. Not surprise. But silence.

Hell.

"Was Trent seeing Alice?" Ruby tacked onto Owen's question.

Marlie's silence continued for a couple more seconds. "It was a one off, that was it. Just sex. It meant nothing to Trent."

Ruby and Owen groaned in unison. "When did this happen?"

"About a week before Brynn disappeared," Marlie admitted. "I went to Trent's apartment one morning to take him some coffee and a bagel from his favorite shop, and Alice was coming out. She had that whole walk of shame thing going on. Rumpled clothes, smeared eye makeup…"

"Bruises?" Owen asked when Marlie stopped.

"No," the woman practically howled. "It wasn't rape. Alice was clearly there by choice. And here she was supposed to be besties with Brynn. Some friend, right?" Marlie snarled.

Yeah. Some friend. "Did you tell Brynn about this?" Ruby asked.

"No, but I was going to," Marlie replied. "I figured that could cause Brynn to break up with Trent for good, but I confronted Trent about it instead. He said Alice and he were drunk, and he convinced me it was a mistake and that it wouldn't happen again."

"Did Trent tell Brynn about it?" Ruby pressed.

Marlie made a sound to indicate she was giving that some thought. "Maybe. I'm not sure."

That could have been what'd triggered the attack in Brynn's apartment. An argument over his one off that had escalated into violence.

"I have to go," Marlie muttered. "I just wanted to tell you that if Brynn calls you back, let her know I have a gun. And that I will shoot her."

Marlie ended the call, and Ruby and Owen stood there a moment, processing what they'd just learned.

"You believe her about Alice and Trent?" he asked.

Ruby nodded. Then, shrugged. "I believe there was a sexual relationship. But it might not have been a solo incident. It could explain why Carlton perhaps saw Trent and Alice together at that restaurant."

Owen groaned. "Yeah," he grumbled. "And now we have to question, well, every damn thing about Alice."

They did. "On the surface, she's been pushing hard to find Brynn, but that could be a facade. Perhaps to cover up that she's been helping Trent all this time. Or…" Ruby stopped and gathered her breath. "…Alice is truly searching for Brynn because she feels guilty for betraying her best friend."

"I'm not sure which one I buy more," Owen said, and he took out his phone again. "Let's see what Alice has to say about this."

He made the call to Alice, but after two rings, it went to voicemail. And Ruby got an uneasy feeling about that. If Brynn was indeed doing revenge killings and if she knew about the so-called one off, then Alice might be on the hit list.

Ruby took out her own phone. "I'm going to put two of my operatives as tails on Alice and Marlie. That might be our fastest way to catch the killer."

Owen made a sound of agreement and started to make a call as well. "I'll put two of my guys on Francine and Carlton."

Good. That way, they had all the potential victims covered. Well, except for Owen and her, and they could cover themselves.

She hoped.

It would be easy for their feelings about Brynn to muddy the waters enough for them to make a fatal mistake.

Owen had just finished his call to his headquarters but hadn't even put his phone away when it rang. The hope rushed through Ruby. Maybe this was Brynn, and maybe they could convince her to tell them where she was.

"Hell, it's Marty," Owen grumbled.

There went that hope, and it was replaced with a sense of dread. Because so far the sheriff hadn't been the bearer of good news.

"Owen," he said and added that he was on speaker.

"There's been another murder," Marty explained after a heavy sigh.

"Is it Alice?" Owen wanted to know.

"No. It's Trent," the sheriff spelled out.

"Trent?" Ruby and Owen repeated in unison. "Where was he?" Ruby asked.

"At an apartment in downtown San Antonio. He was apparently living there for the past six months under the alias, Ashton Walters, and he's altered his looks some. He dyed his hair dark brown, let it grow out some, and he had a goatee."

All cosmetic things to conceal his identity. Later, Ruby would want to know how he'd been supporting himself all this time and who was helping with that, but for now, she focused on the murder itself.

"When was he killed?" she asked Marty.

"The initial estimate of time of death is about an hour ago. Maybe less," the sheriff qualified. "And the crime scene is a bloody mess. Way more violence than with the other victims."

Damn it. The killer was escalating.

"There was a note left with the body," Marty added. "Like the others, it was written in blood." He paused a heartbeat. "It said Three down, four to go ."

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